Over the last four parts we built a working marketplace: installed Bagisto, onboarded sellers, managed products, and handled orders and commissions.
That's a functioning marketplace - but "functioning" and "ready for the real world" aren't the same thing.
Once sellers, products, and orders are in place, a live marketplace needs the operational layer around them:
How things get shipped, how tax is applied, how trust is built through reviews, and what happens when something goes wrong.
This final part covers those four.
Shipping configuration and per-seller fulfillment
Shipping is harder in a marketplace than in a single store, for an obvious reason:
One order can involve several sellers, in different locations, with different delivery arrangements.
A customer's package from Seller 1 and their package from Seller 2 may ship separately, from different cities, on different timelines.
Bagisto handles the foundation of this in two layers.
Store-level shipping methods. The admin configures the methods available at checkout under:
Admin → Configuration → Sales → Shipping Methods
The built-in methods are Flat Rate and Free Shipping, each with its own settings (rate, status, and so on).
These define what shipping options a customer sees.
Per-seller fulfillment. This is the marketplace-specific piece.
Because an order is split by seller (Part 2 and Part 4), each seller creates their own shipment for their portion of the order
- provided the admin granted shipment permission.
So the delivery itself is decentralized: every vendor fulfills and ships their own items independently.
Sellers also publish their own shipping policy on their profile (from Part 3's profile setup), so customers know each vendor's delivery terms up front.
ℹ️ A note on scope: the base extension gives you store-wide shipping methods plus per-seller fulfillment.
If you need truly seller-specific shipping rates (each vendor setting their own prices per region) or live carrier integrations (Shiprocket, DHL, etc.).
Those are typically handled by additional shipping add-ons or custom development rather than the core marketplace.
Tax settings: rates, categories, and rules
Tax uses Bagisto's core tax engine, which is built from three pieces that work together.
Understanding how they connect is the whole job here.
Tax Rates - the actual percentages, defined by location.
A rate specifies where it applies (country, state, postcode) and how much (e.g. 18% GST for a given region).
You can have many rates covering different geographies.
Tax Categories - labels you attach to products (for example, "Standard," "Reduced," or a GST slab).
A product is assigned a tax category so the system knows which kind of tax it's subject to.
Tax Rules - the glue.
A rule ties a tax category to one or more tax rates, so "products in category X, sold to a customer in region Y, are taxed at rate Z."
Tax Rate (where + how much)
+
Tax Category (what kind of product)
↓
Tax Rule (applies the right rate to the right product/location)
The marketplace angle: since sellers can operate from different locations, location-based tax rules help apply the correct tax.
This ensures taxes are calculated based on the relevant jurisdiction.
Each seller's order paperwork then reflects the appropriate tax for the items they sold.
Set the rates, categories, and rules once at the admin level, and they apply consistently across every seller's sales.
Customer reviews and ratings
Reviews are the trust engine of a marketplace.
When customers buy from independent sellers, ratings and feedback help them judge product quality.
They also help customers understand whether a seller is reliable.
In Bagisto's marketplace, feedback works on two levels.
Product reviews. After a purchase, a customer can leave a star rating and written feedback on the product.
Higher-rated products signal quality and tend to attract more buyers.
Seller reviews. Separately, customers can rate the seller - reliability, responsiveness, delivery.
A customer leaves one by visiting the seller's profile, opening Reviews, and clicking Write a Review.
This is what builds a vendor's reputation over time.
Admin moderation. Reviews don't publish automatically - the admin approves them first, which keeps feedback genuine and blocks spam or abuse.
The admin moderates from two screens:
Admin → Marketplace → Product Reviews
Admin → Marketplace → Seller Reviews
In each, the admin selects a review and uses the Select Action dropdown to approve or disapprove it.
Only approved reviews appear - product reviews on the product page, seller reviews on the seller's review page.
Why it matters. On a marketplace, credibility is distributed across many sellers the platform doesn't directly control.
A visible, moderated review system helps good sellers build reputation and gives buyers confidence.
It also surfaces honest feedback that encourages sellers to improve without the platform vouching for every vendor.
Dispute resolution and RMA returns
Even a well-run marketplace has returns, cancellations, and the occasional conflict.
The mechanism for handling these is RMA (Return Merchandise Authorization) - a structured request-and-response flow between the three parties.
The flow maps cleanly to a real dispute:
flowchart TD
A[Customer has an issue] --> B[Customer raises an RMA request]
B --> C[Seller & customer communicate via messages]
C --> D[Admin reviews / oversees the request]
D --> E[Resolution: return / exchange / refund / cancel]
How it plays out:
- The customer raises an RMA from their account - Selecting the order and items, choosing a reason (from reasons the admin defined), and optionally attaching images of the product.
- The seller is notified and works the request from their dashboard's RMA section: viewing details, messaging the customer back and forth, and updating the request's status.
- The admin oversees everything - they can see every RMA request and the full conversation between seller and customer. They resolve requests for their own products directly.
- Admin-side configuration controls the rules: RMA reasons, the default allowed days to raise a request, resolution types, and which product types are eligible.
ℹ️ A note on scope: the full Marketplace RMA capability is a separate add-on module that sits on top of the marketplace
- It requires the marketplace extension to be installed first.
If returns and disputes are central to your marketplace, budget for it as an additional component rather than assuming it ships with the base.
Beyond RMA, the seller dashboard also has a Communications channel for messaging the admin directly.
Which is useful for issues that fall outside a formal return request.
The complete journey
That completes the series.
Across five parts, we went from an empty install to a marketplace with an operational layer around it:
- Part 1 - Setup: installed Bagisto and the marketplace extension, and understood the architecture.
- Part 2 - Vendor management: seller registration, admin approval, profiles, and permissions.
- Part 3 - Product management: seller product creation, ownership, approval, per-vendor inventory, and variations.
- Part 4 - Orders & commissions: multi-vendor checkout, order splitting, commission models, and payouts.
- Part 5 - Advanced configuration: shipping, taxes, reviews, and dispute handling.
Along the way, a recurring pattern is worth calling out: the marketplace's real work is coordination - attributing every product, order, and payout to the right seller.
While keeping each vendor's operations isolated from the others.
Once you see that, the individual features stop being a list and start being one coherent system.
You now understand the complete workflow required to create and operate a multi-vendor marketplace using Bagisto.
From installation through the day-to-day operations that keep sellers, customers, and the platform working together.